Galerie XII

In 2018, Chantal and Gabriel Bauret, along with a team, initiated a series of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary Nordic photography, called “Lumières Nordiques,” which took place in several museums and art centers in Normandy. A second edition concluded in January 2024. Within this framework, they met with artists from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Estonia. While visiting the studio of a photographer, Torben Eskerod, who would be exhibited at the Jumièges Abbey, they met Susanne Wellm in Copenhagen. In 2020, they also showcased the works on color by three Danish photographers at the Clémentine de la Féronnière gallery in Paris. Additionally, they curated two exhibitions dedicated to Robert Doisneau and Robert Capa, which have been traveling in Italy since 2021 as part of a collaboration with Silvana Editoriale. They also participate in the selection of submissions for the annual documentary photography grant jury for the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation. Gabriel Bauret is preparing a book to be published by Loco Editions on photography in France in the 1980s. He served as the general curator of the Biennale des photographes du monde arabe from 2015 to 2019 for the MEP and the IMA in Paris, in which Galerie XII participated.

The history of photography is, since its onset, on a quest to discover more details, master the rendering of light and color, and aims to provide an always more realistic representation of the world. To counter this, some artists have employed a more rudimentary approach to our environment evoking their personal imagination and fictitious flirtations. 

Susanne Welmm has put to use a machine to play with hazyness and a blurring of images, creating the illusion of movement while at the same time introducing an element of mystery. To achieve this, she dug into a collection of photographs from various origins, often unknown sources. This collection, which, at times, allows her to superimpose different images, provided the material from which she conducted subtle manipulations: her practice can be compared to weaving and intertwining. Long strips of prints are distributed very regularly and methodically across the surface of the work, with the help of threads. Sometimes photographs are cut in the middle..

This weaving forms a fabric which filters our vision. The artistic gesture focuses on this intertwining, the hand guiding the loom; it resides in the very material work of the artwork that will be exhibited. The subject of the image pushed to the background as if the artist’s attitude wanted to demonstrate their humility. The separation between the viewer and the art becomes blurred, as one glimpses into a world that lives and moves. The transparency of the fabric, hinting at the presence of something or someone: we perceive a fragmented reality.The title which the artist gives to each work leads us back to the fundamental narrative. It is the idea of a journe: traversing through the urban landscape, exploring the unknown.